#1368: Judy Loves Me by Johnny Crawford

Peak Month: February 1964
7 weeks on the CFUN chart
Peak Position: #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #95
YouTube.com link: “Judy Loves Me”
Lyrics: “Judy Loves Me”

John Ernest Crawford was born in 1946 in Los Angeles. He got into acting as a child star and by the age of  nine was one of the Mouseketeers in the first season caste of the The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955. Crawford was asked in 1982 about how he got picked for the show. He recalled, “I went on the audition and I did a tapdance routine with my brother, and we also did a fencing routine. Then they asked if we had anything else we could do. My grandmother told me to tell them that I imitated ’50s singer Johnny Ray. I stepped forward and did my imitation of him singing “Cry” and that was what got me into the Mouseketeers.” Though he was cut from the show in 1956 after Disney cut the caste from 24 to 12, Crawford continued to get acting roles. Between 1956 and 1958 he appeared in episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Loretta Young Show, Sheriff of Cochise, Wagon Train, Crossroads, Whirlybirds, Mr. Adams and Eve and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. The latter featured an episode that became a syndicated TV show called The Rifleman. Johnny Crawford played Mark McCain, son of Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors). In 1959 Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in The Rifleman. The show ran from 1958 to 1963.

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#1409: Rosemary by Brian Hyland

Peak Month: May 1960
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com link: “Rosemary”
Lyrics: “Rosemary”

Brian Hyland was born in 1943 in Queens, New York. In his childhood Hyland learned to play the guitar and the clarinet. In 1958, while he was still 14 years-old, he formed a group named the Delfis. Though they tried to get a record contract they were never signed. In 1959 Brian Hyland got a record deal with Kapp and released “Rosemary”. The song was composed by two songwriters who never wrote another tune.

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#1182: All I Wanna Do by Doucette

Peak Month: October 1978
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “All I Wanna Do”
Lyrics: “All I Wanna Do”

In 1952 Jerry Doucette was born in Montreal into a musical family. At the age of four his family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. At the age of six got his first guitar. When he was eight he began to take guitar lessons. When he was eleven he joined a band called the Reefers. When he turned 16 he moved to Toronto and was a member of a number of bands including Brutus. He moved to Vancouver in 1972 and  played with the Alexis Radlin Band. Soon after he joined the Seeds of Time who were searching for a guitarist. In 1974 they changed their name to the Rocket Norton Band. Doucette remained with this band until he decided to go solo in 1977, after Mushroom Records expressed support for such a move.

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#1237: Rockin’ Goose by Johnny And The Hurricanes

Peak Month: October 1960
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #8
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #60
YouTube.com: “Rockin’ Goose”

John Matthew Pocisk was born in rural Ohio near Toledo in 1940. He learned to play the saxophone. Poscisk formed his first band while he was in high school. Subsequently, he formed a band in October 1957 name the Orbits. The name was taken from news stories about the Space Race between the USA and the USSR that began in the mid-50’s. On October 4, 1957, the USSR had a successful launch of Sputnik 1 which was the first satellite to orbit the earth. The band called the Orbits were based in Toledo, Ohio. They developed a following and were soon noticed by talent agents who heard one of their demos. The Orbits were approached by Harry Balik and Ira Micahnik of Artists Inc. in Detroit. Balik and Micahnik managed Little Willie John and the Royaltones. and taken under the wing of management who had their name changed to Johnny And The Hurricanes. Johnny Pocisk was billed as Johnny Paris while performing with the Hurricanes.

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#1138: If You Go This Time by Platinum Blonde

Peak Month: June 1988
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “If You Go This Time”
Lyrics: “If You Go This Time”

Mark Holmes was born in the UK and lived in Manchester until the family moved to Toronto. He met several other musicians and formed a punk band that played covers to The Police and other new wave bands. After a lineup change, Holmes was playing guitar and the lead vocalist, Chris Steffler was the drummer and Sergio Galli was a second guitarist. The trio became Platinum Blonde. They got a record deal with CBS in 1983. Their debut album, Standing In The Dark, earned them two Video Of The Year nominations at the 1984 Juno Awards. But it was their second album, Alien Shores, which included “Crying Over You”, a #1 single on the Canadian RPM charts in 1985, and in Vancouver.

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#1265: Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies

Peak Month: March 1993
8 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68 (in 1998)
YouTube.com: “Brian Wilson”
Lyrics: “Brian Wilson”

Lloyd Edward Elwyn “Ed” Robertson was born in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1970. He began to play guitar when he was in grade five. Steven Jay Page was also born in Scarborough in 1970. He took piano lessons for ten years and was a member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir. Page and Robertson crossed paths in elementary school. But they didn’t become friends until 1988 when they found themselves co-counsellors at a summer Scarborough Schools Music Camp. Later that year there was a charity and Robertson asked Page to join him in a performance. The duo named themselves the Barenaked Ladies.

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#1284: Out Of Left Field by Percy Sledge

Peak Month: April 1967
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
1 week Hit Bound
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #55
YouTube.com “Out Of Left Field”
Lyrics: “Out Of Left Field”

Percy Tyrone Sledge was born in 1941 in northwestern Alabama. His dad died while he was still an infant. From a young age he picked cotton and chopped cotton. He was raised on music in the church and also loved country music. Growing up Percy dreamed about playing baseball. But his classmates thought he’d be a singer. Percy Sledge worked as a hospital orderly and later at a chemical plant. He sang on weekends with a band called the Esquire Combos. The band traveled across Alabama and Mississippi. With his untended hair cut and gap-toothed smile, Sledge was not a typical recording artist, as record companies were increasingly scouting for attractive performers to showcase on TV, even though most households still had black and white televisions in 1966.

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#1370: I Put A Spell On You by Alan Price Set

Peak Month: August 1966
6 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #80
YouTube.com “I Put A Spell On You”

Alan Price was born in northeastern England in 1942 in the village of Fatfield. By the age of seven he started to teach himself to play piano. He added the organ, guitar and bass to his repertoire by his mid-teens. The skiffle craze that swept England in the ’50’s captured Alan Price. Rock ‘n roll became his musical focus and Jerry Lee Lewis, with his piano antics, was Alan Price’s hero. He formed a band named the Black Diamonds. By the end of the decade Price added jazz and rhythm and blues to his instrumental showcase. He got a reputation as a young musical genius in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. In 1961 Alan formed the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo. By 1962 the lineup consisted of Eric Burdon providing lead vocals, Chas Chandler on bass, Alan Price (keyboards), John Steel on drums and Hilton Valentine on guitar. They played at the Downbeat Club on Carliol Square, with its audiences populated with beatniks and Bohemians. From that launching pad they got gigs at Club A-Go-Go. Both clubs were owned by the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo’s manager, Mike Jeffrey.

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Peak Month: September-October 1988
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com “Out Of Touch”

Innocent 3 was comprised of Kelly Brock on lead vocals and Karen Campbell on backing vocals. Kelly Susan Brock was born in 1967. Brock was the lead vocalist for the Vancouver cowboy-punk band Lost Durangos with Greg Potter (guitar, vocals) Paul de Boursier (drums), Matt Rickson (bass, vocals) and Buck Cherry (guitar, vocals). They released an album in 1986 titled Evil Town. Karen Campbell born in Owen Sound in 1970. She was a child actor on TV commercials. At the age of ten she was featured in a commercial for Swiss Chalet. For ten years she was known as the ‘milk girl’ on Canadian dairy ads promoting milk consumption. She appeared in her first film, The Newcomers, when she was eleven. When she was seventeen she was photographed for Vogue Magazine in Monte Carlo. Subsequently, she was featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Elle.

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#1411: I Can Make It With You by Jackie DeShannon

Peak Months: September 1966
5 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #10
1 week Up ‘N Comers
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68
YouTube.com: “I Can Make It With You”
Lyrics: “I Can Make It With You”

Sharon Lee Myers was born in Hazel, Kentucky, in 1941, a town on the Tennessee and western Kentucky border. When she was only two years old she received her first vocal training. By 1947, she was appearing on a local radio station as a child country and western singer. And by 1952, Sharon Lee Myers was hosting her own radio show. In 1954, with the family farm posing mounting challenges, the family moved to her mother’s home town of Aurora, Illinois, a seven hour drive north of Hazel. A year later, when she was in 8th grade, the family moved to nearby Batavia, Illinois. Her dad became a barber and young Sharon got instant recognition in the local paper. A headline in on May 5, 1955, in the Batavia Herald read “Sharon Lee Myers, Only 13, Is Talented Batavia Vocalist.” The paper enthused, “Though only 13, the youngster can boast almost 11 years of voice training and experience and in the past she has toured most of the south making personal appearances. Also she has sung on radio with a rhythm band for 2 years and has appeared on television 3 times.”

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